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A review by isaacstuart
The Holocaust: A New History by Laurence Rees
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.75
As the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza have intensified and evolved over the past year, I’ve made a concerted effort to learn all I can about the history of genocide and—more importantly, in my view—the mentality that informs genocidal thought and action.
I’ve struggled to understand how an ordinary person could reach a level of contempt and dehumanization so profound that it leads to genocide. How could the Belgians exploit the Congolese so brutally that they left roughly 10 million dead in their wake? How could Hutus murder hundreds of thousands of Tutsis in the span of just 100 days? What could lead to the systematic murder of six million Jewish people—along with millions of others, including Sinti and Roma, Slavic people, queer people, communists, socialists, people with disabilities, and more? And what could drive the indiscriminate killing of tens of thousands—at the very least—in Gaza today?
I really found no solid, concrete answer until reading this book. Genocide is not a singular action or event that transpires. Much like fascism and reactionary politics in general, it is more of a mood than a solid goal for society. The Nazis, much like the Extremist Hutu militias, did not WANT, to kill Jews or Tutsis respectively; it was a core part of their beliefs that these deaths were necessary for national survival. Only because of the prior anti-semitism of Germany and the anti-Tutsi sentiment in Rwanda were these genocidal attitudes able to come to fruition. If a German believes that Jews are an alien element that cost them the First World War and are still actively seeking to denigrate all things the German “nation” holds dear, it becomes much easier to justify mass violence against civilians in the name of protecting the Nation. More than this, it becomes an imperative in the minds of reactionary elements of society to eliminate those they deem responsible for all social ills.
In other words, genocide depends on the perception of its victims being the perpetrators of far worse than what is being done to them. All of this is to say that the victims of a genocide are not treated as humans or even animals that the perpetrators deem inferior—they are treated as a disease; an existential threat to those the genocide claims to “protect”.
Genocide, at its most basic, is internally justified through the idea that it is defense from harm. The Nazis—and Israel today— do not claim to be killing indiscriminately or with no cause; they claim victimhood and self-defense from an existential threat to their existence. Those they kill cannot be “innocent”, because they are perceived as the collective manifestation of each societies internal and external ills. To the “genociders”, they are the real victims forced to defend themselves from a human disease.
In this way, genocidal thinking is a narcissistic and infantile disorder that depends on perpetual victimhood and a belief in your own superiority. These same things are also what makes it so attractive to people.
I don’t know the book made me reflect a lot on the attitudes that inform genocide and I really appreciate the painstaking efforts the author put in to describe the Holocaust so meticulously. Really great, thought provoking book.
RANT OVER
I really found no solid, concrete answer until reading this book. Genocide is not a singular action or event that transpires. Much like fascism and reactionary politics in general, it is more of a mood than a solid goal for society. The Nazis, much like the Extremist Hutu militias, did not WANT, to kill Jews or Tutsis respectively; it was a core part of their beliefs that these deaths were necessary for national survival. Only because of the prior anti-semitism of Germany and the anti-Tutsi sentiment in Rwanda were these genocidal attitudes able to come to fruition. If a German believes that Jews are an alien element that cost them the First World War and are still actively seeking to denigrate all things the German “nation” holds dear, it becomes much easier to justify mass violence against civilians in the name of protecting the Nation. More than this, it becomes an imperative in the minds of reactionary elements of society to eliminate those they deem responsible for all social ills.
In other words, genocide depends on the perception of its victims being the perpetrators of far worse than what is being done to them. All of this is to say that the victims of a genocide are not treated as humans or even animals that the perpetrators deem inferior—they are treated as a disease; an existential threat to those the genocide claims to “protect”.
Genocide, at its most basic, is internally justified through the idea that it is defense from harm. The Nazis—and Israel today— do not claim to be killing indiscriminately or with no cause; they claim victimhood and self-defense from an existential threat to their existence. Those they kill cannot be “innocent”, because they are perceived as the collective manifestation of each societies internal and external ills. To the “genociders”, they are the real victims forced to defend themselves from a human disease.
In this way, genocidal thinking is a narcissistic and infantile disorder that depends on perpetual victimhood and a belief in your own superiority. These same things are also what makes it so attractive to people.
I don’t know the book made me reflect a lot on the attitudes that inform genocide and I really appreciate the painstaking efforts the author put in to describe the Holocaust so meticulously. Really great, thought provoking book.
RANT OVER
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Slavery, Xenophobia, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Colonisation, War